Law & Politics

LEAP co-founder and retired police captain, Peter Christ, appears on WGRZ-TV in Buffalo, NY and takes on all aspects of our country’s disastrous War on Drugs. Christ is vice-chair of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.

It’s a pleasure watching him systematically debunk myths and misinformation simply by wielding facts and relevant real world examples, as well as providing solutions and insights.

 

Video Highlights: Retired Police Captain Demolishes the War On Drugs

  • Why Peter Christ believes drugs should be legalized; prohibition has failed.  [0:30 mark]
  • In 1920 with alcohol prohibition, the homicide rate increased every year, until it peaked in 1933 when the US legalized alcohol. By 1937, it was back down to pre-1920 levels, even in midst of Great Depression. [1:12 mark]
  • “Legalization of drugs is not about the drugs, it’s about the gangster-ism and terrorism that is supported by the illegal marketplace in this country.”  [1:47 mark]
  • Origins of law enforcement (Robert Peel, London) was to protect people from harm from other people. Protecting people from themselves is a function of yourself, your family; not law enforcement, who is incapable of it.  [2:23 mark]
  •  “We’ve been doing this for over 40 years since Nixon kicked it off and the drugs are more available, purer quality and cheaper than they’ve ever been before in the streets of America… and we’ve had 40,000 deaths in Mexico in the last five years fighting over this drug trade. Plus we’ve destroyed more lives than the drugs have by incarcerating people and hanging felony convictions on them. ” [3:17 mark]
  • “We do not have one drug-free prison in America and if you cannot keep drugs out of prison, who is going to be delusional enough to believe you can keep them out of a free society?” [4:13 mark]
  • Peter’s response to “..Einstein’s theory of insanity, you think you can do things the same way and get a different result. President Nixon declared war on drugs over thirty years ago, how are we doing on that war?” [4:23 mark]
  • “..start saying things like drugs are always going to be in our society, they’re always going to be here… which group of people do you want to run the marketplace? Do you want it run by gangsters, thugs and terrorists who have 13 year old children selling drugs on street corners? Or do you think maybe a licensed and regulated marketplace…” [5:27 mark]
  •  Peter’s response to “If you’re legalizing drugs, doesn’t that promote more usage?” [6:30 mark]
    • “How many people in America do you think are not using cocaine because they can’t get it?”[6:36 mark]
    • Reporter is asked back “If heroin was legalized today, would you go out tomorrow and do heroin?” [7:06 mark]
    • Comparison versus tobacco, messaging to children and how usage can be driven down without making the substance illegal. [7:18 mark]
  • After the federal government legalized alcohol in 1933, they didn’t setup a whole regulatory system for the country. They got out of prohibition business and basically told states regulate booze any way you want. [9:46 mark]
  • We have 450,000 deaths per year from tobacco and 150,000 deaths from alcohol. “My question is when you look at all the illegal drugs and you only have 30,000 deaths per year from all illegal drugs combined… if prohibition is such a good idea, why don’t we bring back alcohol prohibition and prohibit tobacco?”  [11:07 mark]
  • “We are spending $70 billion per year in this country trying to win this drug war. We can revert that…” [12:24 mark]
  • Prohibition first started in the Garden of Eden and the Tree of Knowledge. It didn’t work then and it won’t work now. You can’t outlaw free will. [13:52 mark]
  • Peter’s reply to post-legalization issues, such as DUI, home grows and second-hand smoke [14:42 mark]